Anatomy of a Photo: Laurent Fignon, 1989 Tour de France

I know the feeling, Laurent. Sometimes I just want to give the cross winds a big, “Fuck You”, too.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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brett says:

Aug 9 2011 at 4:40 pm

I think ya'll being a little hard on Michael, yeah he made a bad call, but he's right that Le Prof will be remembered for his 8 second loss in 89.

C'mon, we have more class than that... he's not Slash or Adrian for fuck's sake, cut him some slack on this one.
Gianni says:

Aug 9 2011 at 4:54 pm

@brett

Look at the man's shorts and socks length... you can't argue with that.

A-Merckx there brother

@mcsqueak
Regarding VSP-The Force is strong with the Dutch Monkey this summer. He is much lighter, fitter and maybe this time he will heed the direction of the DS. He will be faster. He might be younger too, somehow. The fucker is not yet 35?
mcsqueak says:

Aug 9 2011 at 5:01 pm

@Gianni

Regarding VSP-The Force is strong with the Dutch Monkey this summer. He is much lighter, fitter and maybe this time he will heed the direction of the DS. He will be faster. He might be younger too, somehow. The fucker is not yet 35?

He's at least 3 hours younger while in Hawai'i by my estimates. That has to count for something.
Steampunk says:

Aug 9 2011 at 5:40 pm

Not yet 35. Sigh. That was a good age...
Velo Kitty says:

Aug 9 2011 at 5:54 pm

I wonder what would have happened had Le Prof embraced the aeros instead of fighting them....
michael says:

Aug 9 2011 at 5:55 pm

As I said before, HTFU.
Souleur says:

Aug 9 2011 at 6:33 pm

@frank & james
my bad, those weren't pinarello drawn, good eye!
Souleur says:

Aug 9 2011 at 6:46 pm

@8ace:
here is my pentance, a pic is all i could find on Fignon's mishap
I can't imagine how that would hurt, to snap a BB
Steampunk says:

Aug 9 2011 at 6:49 pm

@Cyclops

So when are we going to start talking about what a monster of a team that BMC is becoming now that they have Thor and are going after Gilbert?

Tweeted by Dan Wuori:

Wait 'til they tell Thor he's Hincapie's leadout man at Paris-Roubaix...
G'phant says:

Aug 9 2011 at 7:10 pm

@Steampunk
He's reported as saying this:

"My biggest goal is still to win Paris-Roubaix. The BMC Racing Team has good riders to support me or for me to help someone else on the team win."

The part about "someone else" looks like something the marketers and/or lawyers made him say ...